OpenAthens has announced the recruitment of new support team members based in Singapore. The move comes as a direct result of an upsurge in demand for remote access to research materials in the Asia-Pacific region.
OpenAthens’ international customer base has grown in the last decade. This is primarily due to its global reseller partnerships, but also direct customers in a number of countries, says the company.
Currently supporting more than 2,600 organisations in over 65 countries, OpenAthens enables access to knowledge to over five million end users worldwide. But one of the challenges of international customers and partners is that they need local support in their own time zone and language.
Lack of localised support reduces the ability for companies to resolve issues in a timely manner and meet their service promise, says the company. This can impact on customer trust and sales in new territories.
With the growth in demand for OpenAthens in the Asia-Pacific region, the company say they chose to locate its new customer support team in Singapore. The choice of country came about mainly due to the ease of setting up an overseas subsidiary there, but also because of its skilled and technology-driven workforce, they added.
OpenAthens aims to invest in team members with local language skills, who can communicate effectively with customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Excellent customer experience remains a top priority.
Customer services manager for OpenAthens, Matt Olive says: “Library and provider customers in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly choosing OpenAthens’ single sign-on software. One of the main drivers for their choice is the quality of our product, and our ability to provide the same high-quality support, wherever customers are based.”
As part of their focus on international support, OpenAthens plans to extend its service desk opening hours from 13 June 2022. The team will be on hand 20 hours a day, Monday to Friday from 02:00 - 22:00 UK time. This represents a 33% increase over current support hours, says the company.
Matt said: “Having an established customer support function in Singapore will really help us to connect with our customers across the Asia-Pacific region.”
The Singapore team, the company added, will work closely with OpenAthens’ UK based sales and support team, as well as resellers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Matt says: “We’re thrilled to welcome our new Singapore colleagues into the OpenAthens customer support team. Our goal is to work as one team with regular contact points with our business development manager for Asia-Pacific, and with our global partners who operate in that region. The success of the Singapore team will provide the blueprint for future international growth.”
